The affiliate marketing is becoming more and more popular. This is because of the simplicity behind the process:
- You add an affiliate link on your platform(Blog, TikTok, Instagram, etc.)
- Your visitor clicks on the link
- He buys the product or service offered
- You receive an affiliate commission in exchange
The big plus is that your visitor won’t pay more for what he is going to buy. In fact, the advertiser(= the one who offers you to do the affiliation for him) pays you because he believes that without you, he probably would not have made this sale.
It’s a win-win process that allows brands to get customers without spending money(the opposite of advertising in a way). And on the side, affiliate marketing allows publishers to earn money, monetize or even to create a real business, without having to manage customers, after-sales service, suppliers, etc.
However, when you say affiliate, you say affiliate link. And many beginners simply don’t know what an affiliate link is for and how to create one. If this is your case, you’re in the right place! Because in this guide we will explain in detail how affiliate links work ⤵️
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Contents
What is an affiliate link?
An affiliate link is a web link that redirects to a website. Its particularity is that it embeds a tracking cookie. This cookie will be stored in the user’s browser for a specific period of time. Its purpose is to track the user’s actions on this website in an anonymous way.
If the user in question makes a purchase on this site, the cookie will record it. It will keep track of the items ordered and the total amount of the sale.
👉 With this information, the advertiser will calculate the commission they owe you.
The duration of the cookie may vary. In some cases, it lasts only one day and therefore the advertiser can only track sales for 24 hours. That is, if a user clicks on an affiliate link, but does not order within a day, a publisher will not receive a commission.
So if you recommend to your best friend the last game released on the PS5 and he buys it 3 days later… Too bad, you won’t get any commission…
But don’t worry!
The duration of the cookie can also be longer. Many advertisers offer a 30-day cookie. In this case, if someone clicks on your affiliate link and buys later, you can still earn a commission.
So if we go back to our previous example, you will get a commission since your friend bought the game 3 days after clicking on the link.
Isn’t life beautiful?
The duration of the cookie can be up to 60 days for some brands. But, in most cases, it will be 30 days(which is not bad!).
What are affiliate links for?
Affiliate links will allow you to track the sales made by an affiliate. Obviously, these links will be unique to each affiliate. Thanks to the cookies placed in this link, the advertiser will be able to determine exactly what a user has ordered. He will also know which publisher brought him.
How to create affiliate links?
Don’t worry, you don’t need to know how to code to create affiliate links. In reality, it’s up to the advertiser to give you a way to create this type of link. There are generally two ways to get affiliate links.
👉 At first, you can have a single link. If you promote a software or brand that offers only one service, you will have only one affiliate link. When you sign up on the affiliate platform, the company will give you a link that redirects to their sales page.
In most cases it will be impossible to change this link. Moreover, it will only redirect to one page. You will mainly find this type of link in the affiliation of digital products.
👉 In a second step, you will be able to create your own links. If you work with a big e-commerce like Amazon or Cdiscount, it will be up to you to create an affiliate link to redirect to a particular product.
Some brands have their own affiliate program and link building system. However, many brands work with external affiliate platforms.
Let’s take an example by creating an affiliate link for Cdiscount. For information, Cdiscount works with Awin an international affiliation platform.
To create an affiliate link, we will have to go to Awin. But first, you need to find a product to recommend. Let’s say we want to promote the iPhone 13 on our site. So we go on Cdiscount to look for an iPhone 13 to buy.
Once we have found the page, we will copy its URL. Then you have to go to Awin in the link generator section. Here, we will paste the URL of Cdiscount to create an affiliate link.
That’s it, our affiliate link is created. All we have to do now is share it and if someone buys a product on Cdiscount through this link, we will get a commission. 💰
How to recognize an affiliate link?
At first glance, an affiliate link looks like any other link. It is clickable and takes a user to a specific page. Nevertheless, these links have a particularity.
In fact, these links need to be tracked by advertisers. This way, they can know who brought a visitor to their site and what they bought. With this information, the advertiser will be able to determine the amount of commission it must pay to a publisher.
The technique to recognize an affiliate link
To track purchases, an affiliate link uses cookies. However, these are not visible to the naked eye. However, all affiliate links use a tag to attach the affiliate link to a publisher.
So if you click on an affiliate link, you will often see the brand URL + ref=publisher name/affiliate number.
Obviously, the shape of the tag can change. In most cases, a “tag“, “ref” or“referral” will be added at the end of the URL.
Examples of affiliate links
Let’s take a concrete example.
We have placed an affiliate link in our article about the email marketing tool Stripo : https://stripo.email/fr/?fpr=lesmakers. As you can see, the link contains the brand’s URL, as well as a tag containing our name.
This way, as soon as someone clicks on our link, Stripo knows that they are coming from us. And if they buy an offer from that brand, we’ll get a commission.
Let’s take theexample ofAmazon Affiliate, the most used partner program in the world. Let’s say you go to an Amazon affiliate site like lajoliemaison.fr.
On the site is presented a comparison table that displays several vacuum cleaners. As you can imagine, the “See today’s offer” buttons are affiliate links:
Thus, the link redirects to Amazon and contains the tag of the site La Jolie Maison :
Sometimes you can’t recognize an affiliate link by hand, because the webmaster of the site uses a redirect to hide it. In this case, just click on the link and look at the URL displayed in the search bar. If it is an affiliate link, it will automatically contain a tag.
You are now beginning to understand the world of affiliation…
And why your favorite streamers like to show all their setup under their videos or on their lives! These are actually affiliate links. This means that they get a commission if you buy something on the site where they redirect you!
Now that you know what an affiliate link is and what it means, you should know that this method can help you make money online.
In fact, if you put affiliate links anywhere, you’ll make people suspicious when they come across them. And it is very likely that you will not generate a single euro with this technique.
However, with the right method, you can literally earn commissions every day and thus create a real salary.
If you are interested in this method, we invite you to download our free ebook. This e-book explains how to create an affiliate site with a small budget and attract visitors. You will also know how to choose a low competition theme and find high commission affiliates.
Some readers now have multiple affiliate sites and can even live off the commissions generated each month.
To download it now, please enter your email address below:
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